


Conditions

by rexisnotyourwriter



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-19 01:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5950549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rexisnotyourwriter/pseuds/rexisnotyourwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hardy and Ellie get stuck in a car in a blizzard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conditions

“Well that was a bloody waste of time,” Hardy growled, opening the passenger door of Ellie’s car with more force than he intended.

She was too annoyed at the situation herself to bother scolding him for saying that within earshot of the owners of the house they were just leaving, aka the “waste of time”. They’d been working on a serial robbery case for nearly a month, drove hours to chase the first promising lead they’d had, and only five minutes into their conversation they realized that it was a dead end.

Ellie grabbed the window scraper from the back seat and brushed off the snow from the windshield. In the short time they had been inside, the snow had covered it. The snow swept off the car to reveal Hardy inside, arms folded and shivering slightly. The poor sod didn’t bring a coat or a scarf. Mind you, they weren’t expecting this sudden and heavy snowfall, but still. It was winter.

She knocked the excess snow that clung to the brush off on her boot and chucked it on the floor behind her seat. Hardy’s arms tightened when Ellie got in to quell his shaking.

Even with the wipers on, Ellie could barely see the road through the large white flakes that flew at the car. They weren’t coming down hard, but they offered a continual flow of nuisance, like walking through a whole corridor full of cobwebs, swatting away one after another.

When they hit the highway, it was a whole other story. The snow pelted their car as if they were under attack from the sky, white drones splatting against the windshield.

They slid around a curve, the front corner of the car dipping into the other, thankfully empty, lane. Ellie’s hands tightened around the wheel while Hardy’s gripped the edge of his seat.

“You could slow down a bit.”

“You could shut up a bit.”

Ellie just wanted to get home. In one piece, of course, but as soon as possible. Her stomach was churning from hunger. She thought there was a granola bar or something in the pocket behind Hardy’s seat, but she didn’t dare take a hand off the wheel, not in these conditions.

Her foot eased up on the gas, if only to keep Hardy from irritating her further. The car slowed more than she anticipated. She pressed down on the gas; the car continued to slow.

A car honked at them as it passed in the other lane.

“Alright, Miller. You made your point.”

“It’s not me.”

He turned to her. She was pressing down hard on the petal, and still they slowed.

Another car honked.

“Pull over. There’s a spot just up there.”

She turned her hazard lights on and veered to a spot on the shoulder of the highway that was clear enough of snow for them to be out of the way of traffic.

“I don’t know what’s wrong. I just had it in the bloody shop a few weeks ago.”

Hardy leaned over to take a look at the dashboard, inspecting the display. He rolled his eyes and slumped back into his seat with a heavy sigh.

“What? What is it?”

He turned and gave her a condescending stare. His eyes motioned towards the dashboard.

“You’re out of petrol.”

“What? No I’m-”

But when she turned to look, she saw he was right. The fuel gage was as low as it would go.

“Shit.”

“Isn’t there a light that’s supposed to let you know when you’re low?”

“Clearly not,” she snapped. “Or we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Her stomach growled, but Hardy couldn’t hear it over the curses she was muttering under her breath.

“Should probably turn the car off,” he suggested carefully. “Save the battery.”

She did, but rolled her eyes in the process. He was right though.

The car had barely started to heat up when they got on the highway. Ellie could already feel the chill sinking back into her skin.

Hardy pulled out his phone.

“I think I have a blanket in the back,” Ellie said.

She put her hood on and opened the door. A gust of snow came rushing in, and she quickly shut it once she was outside. It was miserable. If she hadn’t just left the car, she probably wouldn’t have been able to find it in the swirl of snow.

The boot of the car took some muscle to get open, but when she was finally able to pry the latch loose, she found no blanket there, only a punctured football and some useless odds and ends she’d been meaning to clean out.

She’d forgotten that the blanket she kept there had gotten quite dirty at one of Tom’s matches, and she’d brought it in to wash and forgot to put it back.

“Bullocks.”

She snuck back inside the car as carefully as she could to allow in as little snow as possible. Hardy was on his mobile. He gave Ellie a sideways glance as she got inside.

“Right. Thanks. See you soon.”

He hung up.

“Someone’ll be here soon.”

“Thank god.”

He looked at her empty hands.

“No blanket?”

“No, forgot I took it out.”

He nodded slightly and turned to look out the window. He folded his arms again, tightly, causing his shoulders to hunch.

“You should’ve brought a jacket.”

“‘m fine,” he said, turning his head to her.

His lips quivered as he said it. Ellie snorted.

“You’re worse than Tom.”

Hardy let out a long loud breath through his nose and went back to staring out the window.

Ellie watched as flake after flake stuck to the windshield. It didn’t take long until the surface was covered in snow. The side windows were the only way for them to see out and for the light to come in, but even those had begun to attract the flakes to their edges.

Hardy shifted his hands up into his armpits for warmth. He could barely control the chattering of his teeth, but he’d rather suffer through it than admit to just how cold he was; he’d never hear the end of it.

“How much longer d’you think?” Ellie asked.

He pulled his hand out to check his watch.

“I don’t know.”

“Christ, your hand!”

Hardy looked down. His knuckles were stark white. They even had a blueish hue to them, but that could’ve just been the light reflecting off of his tie.

He scrunched up his face and shrugged nonchalantly.

“For fuck’s sake…”

Ellie started taking her jacket off.

“Oh, come on-”

“Just take-”

“I’m not-”

“Don’t you bloody say you’re not cold.”

“I’m not taking your jacket.”

By this point, Ellie had removed her jacket and was thrusting it at Hardy, his near translucent hands up in defence.

“Well, I’m not going to listen to your bones chattering away until you die, so.”

“Stop being overdramatic, Miller.”

“Fine. Freeze to death then,” she said, turned her back to him.

Hardy rolled his eyes.

“I can handle the cold just fine,” he said.

“Oh, and you think I can’t, is that it?”

She was fired up again.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s what you said.”

“No, it wasn’t - geez, Miller, we can share the bloody coat if it will get you to shut up.”

She looked at him, the anger stripped from her face. She was trying to imagine how on earth that would possibly work, and it started to show in her twisted expression. The only times she remembered sharing a coat with anyone it was when Tom was small enough for her to wrap it around him as he hugged her for warmth.

Hardy noticed her nose wrinkle and her lip curl and could only guess what she might’ve been thinking.

“I mean - use it like a blanket. Not, you know…”

He moved his arms about awkwardly trying to mime the awkwardness of a situation in which they were both actually wearing the coat.

“God, no!”

Hardy tucked his lips inside his mouth and rubbed the back of his neck, tugging his earlobe on the way down.

“Alright, fine then,” Ellie mumbled.

She scooted herself closer to the middle and draped half the coat over her. Hardy did the same, though more reluctantly. The coat was barely covering either of them. Ellie tried to tug it closer to her so it was more even between them, but she ended up pulling it off him completely.

“Sorry.”

“Move a bit closer.”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“For goodness sake, Miller, I don’t have cooties.”

She rolled her eyes and shuffled closer to the center. So did he. The tops of their shoulders were pressed up against each other, but they both kept their hands next to them, the partition between the seats protecting the rest of their bodies from touching. Ellie repositioned the blanket on her side; Hardy grabbed the other side with his outside hand to drape over himself. This time it mostly covered them, but after a few seconds it would slip off. Each time they pulled it back on, it wasn’t long until it fell back off again.

Ellie groaned in frustration, once again muttering curses under her breath.

“Put your arm in,” Hardy said.

“What?”

He put his outside arm in the sleeve on his side.

“So it won’t fall.”

“Oh.”

She felt the jacket pull away from her as Hardy slipped his arm inside. She did the same with hers and felt herself pulled closer to the partition, squishing her arm in the process. Their shoulders were pressed even closer together now. The pressure on her concealed arm was too much for her to bear. She lifted it up and rested it on top of the partition, surprised to find Hardy’s arm resting there as well.

“Sorry,” they both murmured, withdrawing their arms.

“You can have it,” Hardy said.

“Stop being such a martyr. We shared a bed, we can share an armrest.”

“And clothes, apparently,” he added dryly, so quietly that Ellie almost didn’t catch it.

Their arms cautiously returned to rest on top of the partition. It was just big enough to fit both of their forearms, but only if they were right up next to each other. Now their whole arms were touching, from shoulder to pinky.

Hardy’s skin was cold against hers; Ellie’s was warm on his.

They both looked out their windows, facing away from each other as if to ignore the situation, quite literally, at hand. Hardy could feel the warmth from her arm radiating next to his, making its way throughout the rest of his body. Ellie could feel it too - not her hand getting colder from his, but his coldness disappearing until she couldn’t tell where the edge of her pinky stopped and his began.

Tired of staring at the snow, Ellie turned her attention back inside the car. She looked at Hardy, still staring out the window, and then down at both of them. She burst out laughing.

Hardy’s head snapped to look at her.

“What?”

She kept laughing, unable to stop long enough to form an answer.

“What?” he asked again, more annoyed.

“Look at us,” she managed to slur out between giggles. “We look like a two headed pumpkin.”

He raised a skeptical eyebrow at her, still unable to control her laughter. Whenever he thought she was done, she’d start back up again. Out of curiosity, he looked over the current state of their appearance. She was right.

A smirk began to form on his face, and he bit the inside of his mouth to try and stop it. It was no use. The image was in his head and Ellie’s laughter was too infectious for him not to join her. He chuckled and she was near wheezing, her eyes watering from the laughing fit.

There was a loud knock from the window that made both of their laughter and hearts stop. They turned to the source of the noise and saw the recently wiped window revealing Tess’ face, complete with a displeased smirk and raised eyebrows.

Ellie turned away from Tess and back at Hardy.

“Tess. That’s who you called for help? Your bloody ex-wife.”

“She lives ten minutes from here. It was going to be faster than calling a garage or something.”

Ellie rolled her eyes.

“Cheaper too,” he added under his breath.

Ellie, realizing they were still snug under her jacket, squirmed out of it. Hardy did the same and handed it back to her. She quickly put it on before getting out of the car. It was nice and warm on the inside from their body heat.

“Well, well,” Tess said when Ellie got out. “Don’t you two look cosy.”

Hardy got out of the car, too, returning his hands to the warm spot under his armpits.

“Thanks for coming,” he said.

“Not a problem,” Tess said, walking over to the rear side of the car, petrol tank in hand.

Hardy met her there and unscrewed the cap on the car. Tess took a step closer to him.

“If I recall correctly, I did owe you a favour,” she said in a soft voice, but loud enough for Ellie to hear.

He took the tank from her.

“We’ve got it from here, thanks.”

She raised her eyebrows and gave him that look he remembered all too well. Her disbelieving look. That final “are you sure”.

“Thanks,” he said again, but his tone had changed.

“Right,” she said, turning around to Ellie. “Drive safe.”

“Will do,” she replied. “Thanks.”

Tess got back in her car and drove off as Hardy finished emptying the tank into the car.

“This’ll last until the next exit.”

“Great, thanks,” she mumbled, immediately getting back into the car.

Hardy got in and tossed the empty tank into the back seat.

Ellie started the car up and watched the fuel gage rise up from the red. The car crunched under the freshly fallen snow on the road shoulder as she pulled back onto the highway.

The snow had eased up, only the occasional flake needing to be wiped from the windshield every so often. Ellie couldn’t get the image of Tess’ face when she saw them wrapped up in her orange coat out of her head. She had to consciously stop her mouth from turning up into a smirk. The look of jealous horror in her eyes had been priceless.

Ellie turned to glance at Hardy and found him similarly trying to suppress a grin. He turned to look at her, and she realized she had been smirking as well. Their eyes met for a moment before their mouths dropped and attention returned ahead. Neither knew for certain the cause of the smile on the other’s face, but they could guess.

They sat in silence until Hardy pointed out the next exit with a petrol station. The rest of the way home, they each caught the other’s smirk returning out of the corner of their eye.


End file.
